An Introduction to Syracuse

            I have lived in Syracuse for a little over five years now, and I have hopped around since moving here. I spent a year in Camillus, two years in Liverpool, two years in East Syracuse, and now I am back in Liverpool. In that time, only one friend I knew from Georgia had come to visit me, but he was going to school at Penn State at the time, so it was not a huge haul, and he came to run the Mountain Goat. So I will be honest I did not do the best job of showing him around, because I was trying to rest up for the race. We ran at the canal, and we ate at Gino’s in Fayetteville. So when one of my best and oldest friends came to visit me, I wanted to do a better job.

            Ethan flew in on Friday, and he landed a little after ten, but I had to finish work, so I picked him up a little after 1:30, so he got to experience the greatness of the Syracuse airport, which is probably a tenth of the size of Atlanta’s airport. Once I got him, we went straight to one of my favorite places, Green Lakes. We just walked around the main lake, which is less than two miles, but it is one of my favorite places, and it is super accessible.

            I also feel like Green Lakes is best appreciated in person. The color is so unique and stunning, but I feel like it does not transfer to the photos as well, or if it does transfer well, it is because the camera is just facing straight into the water to capture the bright blue color and then you miss the beautiful forested surroundings. We did not do any of the big hills, but I think it is a great place to start, and it represents what I love about living here.

            Next, I gave him the choice between two breweries. I asked if he would prefer to go to a brewery that looked cool or my favorite one. His response to this question was the best possible answer, what are the chances we go to both of them?

            The Single Cut Barn was closer, which was my cool location, but it also has great beer. So we went there, because the other option was closer to home. While there, we were having a beer, and then I turned my head, and I saw my dad walking up. He had the day off, and he had just happened to go for a drive and showed up at the same place as us. Serendipity at its finest. Great minds think alike. I had the Dank IPA, 18 Watt, and their Marzen, all of which were tasty, then we left so Ethan could meet Mya and Zoey for the first time.

            The plan was to eat out for dinner, and I feel like the best way to share how I experience Syracuse was to go somewhere I have never been to before that I saw on Syracuse.com. There were two new burger places that opened in Liverpool, and we decided on Double Cheese, which is the one I was leaning towards. I heard Better Burger was good, but that their wait times had been way too long, and I think we made the right choice. Ethan and I both had the Hot Like Your Mom burger, which was on the hotter side of the perfect amount of spicy, but it was not overwhelming. It was just enough to make me sweat, but the Rare Vos beer from Ommegang had an excellent mouth cooling effect, and it paired well with it in general. They had a small beer selection there, but what they had was of good quality.

Zoey and Mya both had the chicken tenders, which I got to experience a couple days later as leftovers, which I heated up with the air fryer, and they held up well. They had a special dipping sauce too, and it was a good addition. I dipped my fries in it there, but sadly I did not have it for the leftovers. Zoey also gave Ethan a proper welcome by having Brown Bear Brown Bear read multiple times at dinner, and she had him choose his favorite animal from the book multiple times, one of her staple activities.

After dinner, we traveled into Syracuse to go to my favorite brewery, Talking Cursive. It is a great spot at night, because right across the street, the Nimo building lights up the street, and this night it was resplendent in its orange and blue. We sat at the bar and had two beers.

The thing about Talking Cursive that I love is their willingness to make weird beers, and they always make them well. The first beer I had was a Dunkelweizen, and the chocolate notes described were definitely present, but the beer was still light. My second beer was a mashup they did with Prison City, Honeycrisp(y), and it was delicious. It was an apple beer, and it tasted just like apple cider. I would much prefer an apple beer like this compared to a hard cider. Then we went home and hung out with Mya until bed.

The next day, I made Ethan go to the apartment gym with me, and once that was done, we headed out to Chimney Bluffs. This is one of the more unique places you will find within an hour of Syracuse. It is on Lake Ontario, and it has some incredible cliffs.

The hike starts out in the woods, and it takes a slow climb over a mile to get up to the cliffs, but once there, the view of Lake Ontario mixed with massive cliffs makes for a spectacular view. The best way for me to describe it is to imagine the back of a giant spiky dinosaur protruding from the ground in a light orange hue. The trail then runs along the cliff, and most of the way back to the main area of the park has a view of the cliffs.

These hikes are nice on their own any time of the year but what makes them special right now is the Fall transition. The leaves finally started to turn, so they were sprinkled along the ground, and the foliage in the trees was beautiful. This was more so true at Chimney Bluffs than Green Lakes. The transition is one of my favorite parts of the year, and due to my leg my activity has been down in general, so I was glad to get out there this weekend and do some leaf peeping, and I think Ethan enjoyed the beauty of the places that I took him to as well.

That night for dinner, my dad, Sue, Randy, Mya, and Zoey met up with us at Wild Cat, which is one of our go to pizza spots in the area. If it is not the best, it is one of the best, and they have a large beer selection there and good wings as well. Oddly enough, I still think our go to pizza spot in Georgia is better than the places we go in New York, but Wild Cat is still really good pizza.

To put the seal on our trip, we went to the Syracuse game. It was a late one against Pitt, and he got to meet some of my friends from running at a tailgate briefly before we took the bus into the game. Sadly, since the injury to Angelli, Syracuse has been awful. So instead of seeing the above average team that I have been accustomed to, we had to suffer and watch our backup quarterback continue to suck, but that meant we got to leave a little early. I would say going to Syracuse games has been a staple of my time up here, so I am glad he got to experience that as well.

The next morning, we got up and hung out for a little bit before I took him to the airport. On the way there, he complemented how it felt like there was no traffic, but that it was still city enough. He is currently making a 2-hour commute to work, and the lack of traffic here is one of my favorite parts about this city. So he really seemed to enjoy his time here, and I feel like I did a good job of showing him what I love about Syracuse, and why I have no plans on leaving any time soon, and now hopefully more will be willing to take the trip up to the North.